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YouTube introduces ‘YouTube Direct’

YouTube has launched a new tool for news organizations to directly connect with the YouTube community and billions of viewers.

YouTube Direct allows organizations to embed an uploader directly on its site for quick uploading, then a backend system allows the organizations to “quickly request, review, and re-broadcast user-submitted videos with ease.”

The potential for this is clearly pretty massive, as it allows news organizations to expand their coverage (on YouTube’s dime), citizen journalists to get exposure, and YouTube to even further strengthen its lead in online video. The company notes that ABC News, The Washington Post, and San Francisco Chronicle are among the organizations already using the platform. You can bet a lot more outfits – online and traditional – will be looking into ways to use it now that it’s live.

With many systems for creating user-submitted video available to news organizations we will see if YouTube can create a niche for its new product.